NCAA Volleyball Regionals, December 7 & 8

[Dale8R]

The field of 64 has been cut to 16. In looking over the pairings, I don't see any likely upsets, but I am sure that there will be. Who could even have imagined six of sixteen ranked teams falling in the second round? Can Iowa State do it again? And what about MTSU vs BYU? That one's a blur in my mind.

The new AVCA rankings, which by the way bear little resemblance to the seedings, places MTSU at 16 and BYU at 17. Iowa State enters the poll at 18, Michigan at 19 and Michigan State at 24. Oregon is 9th, up from 13th, but was unseeded by the selection committee. Third seed Penn State still holds down first place over Nebraska in the coaches poll and top seed Stanford remains in fourth. I think the seeding committee is a little closer to the truth, but we shall soon see. http://www.ncaasports.com/volleyball/womens/polls/divi-avca

No. 1 Stanford vs No. 16 Cal Poly
Oregon vs No. 8 UCLA

No. 5 USC vs 12 St. John’s
No. 13 Florida vs No. 4 Texas

No. 3 Penn St. vs Michigan
Middle Tenn.vs BYU

Iowa St.vs No. 10 California
Michigan State vs No. 2 Nebraska

Audio and video links here, and they may add more before match time, so keep looking. http://www.ncaasports.com/broadcast/schedule/champ-audio

Here is the scoreboard, with links to Game Tracker. http://ncaasports.com/volleyball/womens/scoreboard/div1/2007/1207

TELEVISION For those of you lucky enough to have ESPNU, the semi-finals from California are being broadcast on Friday, and ALL of the finals are on Saturday afternoon and night. Check your local listings. There may be other broadcasts, but those are all I find as of Friday morning.

[Noah121]

No. 13 Florida vs No. 4 Texas
No. 3 Penn St. vs Michigan
Middle Tenn.vs BYU
Iowa St.vs No. 10 California
Michigan State vs No. 2 Nebraska

Here are my guesses for the remainder of the tournament:
Sweet Sixteen:
Stanford over Cal-Poly.
UCLA over Oregon.
USC over St. John's.
Texas over Florida.
Penn State over Michigan.
MTSU over BYU.
Cal over ISU -- Sorry Cyclones, but I'm afraid that you won't quite get it.
Nebraska over Michigan State.

Elite Eight:
UCLA over Stanford.
Texas over USC.
Penn State over MTSU.
Nebraska over Cal. :NU:

Final Four:
Texas over UCLA. :UT:
Nebraska over Penn State. :NU:

Championship:
Nebraska over Texas (I predict a 5-game classic.) :NU:

If I were to choose a dark-horse team, I would choose Iowa State :ISU: given as how they have already upset three teams in a row.
My guesses aren't solely a homer guess, though. Of course, I think even if Houghtelling can't play, everyone else has a lot to play for.

[Dale8R]

I pretty much agree with those choices, Noah, but I'll take BYU just to be different.

The only real place where I would disagree is the UCLA-Stanford match, provided of course that neither is upset before they get there! Kehoe, Barboza, Klineman, Akinradewo (yeah, I had to look that one up), that's a great lineup.

That of course presents a quandry down the line when you get to Stanford-Texas. That has the makings of a great matchup, but I think I will give the edge to Stanford.

Final? Nebraska all the way, but it won't be easy. And Houghtelling? I predict that she will be ready. No way is she going to want to miss after watching from the bench last season.

My prediction for player who would make the difference last year was Dani Busboom, and I like to think that I made a good choice there. This season's pick as you might guess is Tracy Stalls. A few matches back she had a perfect 13 kills in 13 swings. Now that is outlandishly unreal.

[Cyclones Rule]

ISU did fall tonight against Cal but the sets were close 30-27, 30-27, 30-24. Great season for ISU. Not a big volleyball but always great to see all ISU sports doing well. Congrats to players and coaches for a wonderful season, you did ISU proud with your efforts.

[Dale8R]

No. 1 Stanford vs No. 16 Cal Poly
Oregon vs No. 8 UCLA

No. 5 USC vs 12 St. John’s
No. 13 Florida vs No. 4 Texas

No. 3 Penn St. vs Michigan
Middle Tenn.vs BYU

Iowa St.vs No. 10 California
Michigan State vs No. 2 Nebraska

Almost a shocking upset as Michigan State took the first two games from the Cornhuskers, but Nebraska rallied back for the 25-30, 28-30, 30-17, 30-28, 15-9 win. Tracy Stalls had 15 kills and one error in 28 swings for a .500 hitting percentage. Rachel Holloway hit .615 on 8 kills and no errors on 13 tries. Houghtelling hit .088, Pavan .181, Larson .317 and Cooper .417. Game writeup at Husker Extra: http://www.journalstar.com/articles/2007/12/07/huskerextra/volleyball/doc475a106c79822210079286.txt

Iowa State did well against California, losing 27, 27 and 24. Match writeup: http://ncaasports.com/volleyball/womens/recaps/d1_1207_01633276/2007

“It has been a remarkable season and the last two weeks have been really magical,” Iowa State head coach Christy Johnson said. “I don’t feel like the scores tonight reflect how hard we fought. We just ran into two outsides (Pressey and Cutura) that were tough but we fought as hard as we could.”

Texas defeated Florida in four, 30-27, 29-31, 30-16, 30 -15. Here's the match writeup from Texas. http://www.texassports.com/index.php?s=&url_channel_id=52&url_article_id=7847&url_subchannel_id=&change_well_id=2

Teams seeded 1-5, 8 and 10 plus BYU have made it into the final eight, though not without a few scares along the way.

[Dale8R]

Today's matchups, all will be on ESPNU starting at 3PM Central.

No. 5 USC vs No. 4 Texas 3PM

No. 3 Penn St. vs BYU 5:30PM

No. 10 California vs No. 2 Nebraska 8PM

No. 1 Stanford vs No. 8 UCLA 10:30PM

[Noah121]

Heh... of course I'll be at the NU-USC game. I'll have to listen to it on the radio and pester the announcer to keep us updated on the score.

[LadyBuff]

I was hoping Iowa State could beat Cal. The lousy CU team beat Cal early in the season.

[Dale8R]

The first two matches really were right next to runaways, unfortunately.

Texas rarely lead, losing 25, 22 and 26 to USC. http://ncaasports.com/volleyball/womens/recaps/d1_1208_01635071/2007

BYU stood up to Penn State for part of the first game, but lost even worse, 23, 15, 18.

I was concerned that matches would run long and the times would overlap, but for those first two matches anyway, it wasn't even close. Game time for Nebraska - California coming up in half an hour.
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Not much to say, Cal was clearly the better team tonight, winning 30-28, 31-29, 30-26. Critical errors in critical spots spelled the end of Nebraska's run.

Mike Dodd was one of the announcers and he mentioned several times what I was thinking as well ~~ nowhere near enough balls for the middles. Both Kori Cooper and Tracy Stalls had 7 kills and 1 error in 13 swings each which translates to a .462 percentage. The other three hitters? .059, .167 and .237 on 34, 18 and 38 swings. Of course, coaching (and setting, too) from the easy chair is a whole lot easier than out there on the floor. Sometimes you just take what you can get. Tonight it wasn't enough.

So the final four will have a distinct Pac-10 flavor, California, USC and either Stanford or UCLA with Penn State the only intruder in the West Coast Tournament.

[Noah121]

Will the Nittany Lions be able to rain on the Pac-10 parade like the Huskers were able to last year? Somehow I don't think so, as Sacramento is much closer to USC, UCLA/Stanford, and Cal than it is to Happy Valley.

[Dale8R]

UCLA did their best to turn the volleyball world upside down with yet another upset, but Stanford prevailed in the end 28-30, 30-28, 30-26, 30-27.

So you have two teams in the final four who were supposed to be there in #1 Stanford and #3 Penn State, though you could say their rankings are reversed according to the AVCA poll, with Penn State ranked #1 and Stanford #4 by the coaches. Then you've got #5/#5 USC and #10/#6 California rounding out the quartet.

Of course the glaring omissions, especially from a Big 12 POV, would be defending champion Nebraska and Texas.

Truthfully, I know it would not be a popular opinion, but it seems to me that the Pac 10 teams have a built in advantage in the day to day high level competition that they are forced to contend with. Beating up on each other all season long certainly prepares them well for the stress of tournament time.

So, what happens from here on out? Stanford is the only one of the Final Four who were extended to an extra game, but they look like the team to beat in my opinion. That doesn't count for much given my past history as a prognosticator though.

[ChipperF1]

Yet another John Choke production...Say it ain't so.

Nebraska better ask Omaha to bid for the Final Four again...

I watch the match last night, another year of Nebraska tightening up when they have to go back to basics.

Oh well, at least this group of seniors got 1 National Championship...They could have had three...

[LadyBuff]

So Cal goes to the Final Four? The three set loss to :CU: must have really turned their season around. That match wasn't even difficult for :CU:, but we never played like that again.